AI-powered search rewrote the rules of SEO this year with diminishing click-through rates and referral traffic upending decades of SEO strategies. In kind, publishers shifted from optimizing headlines and keywords to brand visibility and attribution tracking to appear in AI search results.
The shifts are still underway as publishers head into 2026: KPIs are changing, more AI search data is becoming available, and publishers are looking beyond search to grow their audiences and revenue.
But the basics haven’t changed, according to Ed Hyatt, director of newsroom SEO at The Wall Street Journal.
Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.